Questions Evaded

Running Scared is a tightly compressed first novel by Gregory McDonald. Its opening situation shows a bold mind at work. In a dormitory room at a university—unnamed but obviously Harvard—Tom Betancourt is calmly reading a book when the police, summoned by himself, arrive. On a bed lies his roommate and best friend, MoKensie Case, a suicide with slashed wrists. The matter is kept quiet but one circumstance appals all those who know of it. Tom had watched his friend come in and kill himself. He had refrained from question, argument, or interference, simply reporting the event when it was over. Why had he not even tried to stop the suicide? Tom’s answer is laconic: “He was free.”

Tom elaborates this view under various challenges: “It’s not as if it were an accident. He did it on purpose.” “He died because he wanted to.” In his reflections, “He supposed the Cases, in keeping with modern custom, had encouraged independence and resourcefulness in their children. But what a shock it would be for them to realize how one child had elected to express his freedom. He had been free enough to kill himself. But Tom thought of it coldly and analytically. He was not sure whether or not he would offer them any sympathy.”

EF

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Edmund Fuller

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Running Scared is a tightly compressed first novel by Gregory McDonald. Its opening situation shows a bold mind at work. In a dormitory room at a university—unnamed but obviously Harvard—Tom Betancourt is calmly reading a book when the police, summoned by himself, arrive. On a bed lies his roommate and best friend, MoKensie Case, a suicide with slashed wrists. The matter is kept quiet but one circumstance appals all those who know of it. Tom had watched his friend come in and kill himself. He had refrained from question, argument, or interference, simply reporting the event when it was over. Why had he not even tried to stop the suicide? Tom’s answer is laconic: “He was free.”

Tom elaborates this view under various challenges: “It’s not as if it were an accident. He did it on purpose.” “He died because he wanted to.” In his reflections, “He supposed the Cases, in keeping with modern custom, had encouraged independence and resourcefulness in their children. But what a shock it would be for them to realize how one child had elected to express his freedom. He had been free enough to kill himself. But Tom thought of it coldly and analytically. He was not sure whether or not he would offer them any sympathy.”